Your Right to Know

Ohio kids might be playing online games with sexual predators — and their parents have no
clue.

While sex offenders have long used the Internet to troll for juvenile victims, in recent years
they moved to the online gaming world where they hide behind the anonymity of false names known as “
gamertags.”

It’s been called “a 21st-century crime scene.”

However, as of yesterday, Ohioans can look behind the electronic curtain by using a “reverse
look-up feature” just added to the state’s electronic sex-offender database. It includes telephone
numbers, emails, social-media names and gamertags.

Attorney General Mike DeWine and Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer, of the Buckeye State
Sheriffs’ Association, announced the enhancement to the Electronic Sex Offender Registration and
Notification database, or eSORN, at a news conference.

The database includes information on 18,000 registered sex offenders living in Ohio. Convicted
offenders must register or face a felony charge.

The new feature means people can enter a phone number, email address, social-media screen name
or video gamertag into the
eSORN
database.

If the information is linked to a known sex offender, the name or other details will not be
displayed. However, an alert will appear indicating the name or number is in the database and
recommending that the requester call the local sheriff or the Bureau of Criminal Investigation,
part of DeWine’s office. At that point, law enforcement will determine whether an investigation is
warranted.

DeWine acknowledged that the system isn’t foolproof because offenders routinely discard Internet
names for new ones. But he said the addition gives law enforcement more tools to track
predators.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman went after online predators two years ago, working
with game makers Sony, Microsoft, Apple and Disney to purge 3,500 game accounts linked to
registered New York sex offenders. It was called “Operation Game Over.”

Brant Cook, head of the BCI Crimes Against Children section, estimated that 30 percent or more
of Internet-predator cases involve contact initially made through video games. Cook said he wasn’t
aware for a while that his own children might be vulnerable through online games until he saw
messages from strangers popping up on the screen.

“I’ve been doing Internet investigations for 10 years, and I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” he
said.

Predators might make their initial approach casually through messages but gradually seek more
information: the child’s name, address and photos, Cook said. The “friendly” contacts become more
persistent, seeking to develop a relationship. Predators might offer gifts. The end result is often
a request for a meeting.